dads want – From a cold beer on the National Mall to camera gear and plans for a road trip, dads across Washington said the best Father’s Day gift is still time with their kids—backed by spending projections from the National Retail Federation.
The first thing Matt Stephens offered wasn’t a bow-on-the-table choice. When he climbed the steps of the Lincoln Memorial with his son, Max, the conversation turned to what Father’s Day should look like—family time, first.
Matt said he wanted to spend time with family. Then, when pressed, his smile gave the answer away: “A beer. A cold beer.”
Max, who said they were on a road trip from St. Louis, didn’t try to hide the real goal either. “This is as good as it gets,” he said. When asked whether his dad truly wanted the beer, Max laughed. “Yeah, yeah, he has a few in the cooler.”
National Retail Federation figures put the day in sharp focus financially. Americans are expected to spend a record $27.9 billion on Father’s Day this year. The total would still be more than $10 billion less than what was spent on Mother’s Day.
The NRF also breaks out gift categories by total spending, and a trip can count as more than just time. A trip like the Stephens’ getaway would be considered a “special outing,” and it ranks as the top Father’s Day gift category by total spending at about $4.8 billion.
Not everyone’s “outing” sounded like an open cooler and a road map. Hanna Cooker. 15. was at the National Mall dressed like Thomas Jefferson and George Washington for the World Cup. and she said her father would love to travel across the country to visit every Major League Baseball stadium. Her friend Catherine Lewis made a different pitch for what would make their dad happiest.
“He wants to sit by a pool and smoke cigars and watch ‘King of the Hill,’” Lewis said.
Even as those wishes landed with humor—cigars, animated Hank Hill, grilling plans—the theme stayed steady: dads weren’t chasing objects as much as moments.
Near the Reflecting Pool, Woodbridge resident Raphael Osei pointed to a more practical wish: he wanted a grill. His wife pushed their child in a stroller beside him, and he looked at her as if to ask, “Did you hear that?”
On a different patch of the Mall, a family from Atlanta paused to talk about Sunday’s gift-giving while trying to get a picture together with the Washington Monument behind them. Corey, 11, said his dad would love film for his camera.
His 8-year-old sister, Cameron, thought the wish list would fit another kind of tech-forward summer. “I think he would want a drone and a gift card for Father’s Day,” she said.
They weren’t guessing blindly. Corey and Cameron said their father, Dorian, told WTOP, “Camera gear is always good.”
After listening to the mix of jokes and carefully chosen wants across the National Mall. the same conclusion kept showing up under the punchlines. Beneath the cold beers. cigars. and new grills. the dream gift remained the same for every father in the conversations: the day spent with the people they love most—their kids.
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